The smashed Fender P-Bass from the cover of the Clash’s London Calling to go on display

(Image credit: The Clash Archive)

The Clash’s iconic 1979 album London Calling will be celebrated in a new exhibit at the Museum of London.

The display will host a slew of memorabilia and artifacts from the Clash Archive, chief among them the Fender Precision bass that was captured mid-smash in the hands of Paul Simonon for the album’s cover art.

The destroyed instrument, which met its untimely end onstage at New York City’s Palladium on September 21, 1979, will be on display alongside more than 100 personal items, including Joe Strummer’s typewriter and notepad used to record ideas and lyrics, Mick Jones’ handwritten notes regarding the album’s sequencing, a pair of Topper Headon’s drum sticks and an assortment of stage clothes, archival photos and video footage.

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Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.

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